I was thinking about this in regards to the death penalty in revolutionary societies, I feel like there's a distinction to be made between 'circumstantial' crimes like theft or murder, where someone has to be in a particular place and time etc., they could be motivated by economic hardship, they could even just be innocent - versus 'structural' crimes where their guilt is a result of their position in an organization that cannot be deflected.
Is that how it works in cases where theyre given a reprieve? Within whatever time frame they set, if ine doesnt fuck off, they just commute it to a life of breaking rocks or whatever? Or in two years they still give him the business anyway, and this time is to reflect on the enormity of his fuckup?
I think part of the reprieve is that they have to confess everything they've done. If it turns out within that time period that they hid something they don't get their sentence commuted.